Bioethics Commission to Offer Presentations at ASBH This Week

The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues (Bioethics Commission) is pleased to offer multiple presentations at the American Society for Bioethics and the Humanities (ASBH) Annual Meeting, scheduled for October 16-19 in San Diego, Calif. Over the course of the four day conference Bioethics Commission staff will highlight a number of bioethical issues, including bioethics literacy, incidental findings, and the integration of ethics into neuroscience research.

Executive Director Lisa M. Lee, along with Mildred Solomon, President and CEO of the Hastings Center, will present “Bioethics Literacy across the Lifespan” on October 17 at 10:45 a.m. According to Lee, the talk will focus on more than just ethics education. “Just like bioethics is multidisciplinary, bioethics education is also multidisciplinary. It is not just about a bioethicist teaching a scientist,” said Lee. “Everyone, from organizational leaders to primary school teachers, has a role in ethics education.” The talk comes on the heels of the recent release of the Sept.-Oct. issue of The Hastings Report. The issue, themed “Teaching Bioethics,” is co-sponsored by the Commission and highlights a collection of papers on bioethics education, the Commission’s newly announced project.

On October 16 at 4 p.m., Bioethics Commission Associate Director Michelle Groman, along with representatives of the New York State Task Force on Life and the Law, will lead the panel “Take it or Leave it: the Role of Bioethics Advisory Bodies in Effecting Policy Change.” The panel will use several case studies in order to examine how the features and structure of a bioethics commission, along with the political and social climate, can impact a commission’s influence on changes to policy and law.

The views, opinions and positions expressed by these authors and blogs are theirs and do not necessarily represent that of the Bioethics Research Library and Kennedy Institute of Ethics or Georgetown University.